Contents

History

When Shu's children, Geb and Nut, desired to have children of their own, Ra learned that one of those children would seize his throne. He decreed that Nut could not bear children on any of 360 days in a year. When Nut managed to thwart Ra, he charged Shu with keeping his own children apart as their eternal punishment.

Mythology

In Egyptian mythology, Shu (meaning emptiness and he who rises up) is one of the primordial gods, a personification of air, one of the Ennead of Heliopolis.

Shu's grandchildren are Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys.

As the air, Shu was considered to be cooling, and thus calming and pacifying. Due to the association with air, calm, and thus Ma'at (truth, justice and order), Shu was portrayed in art as wearing an ostrich feather. Shu was seen with between one and four feathers.

Although Shu does not formally appear, Nut explains his duty to Sadie Kane and the story behind it. He sends a wind to repulse the goddess when she demonstratively attempts to visit her husband. Shu later sends another wind to tear apart a starry image of Nut that had been sent to Geb as a gift in a letter

When Anubis and Sadie talk at the school dance, they get interrupted by Shu, Anubis' great-grandfather, who is sent to keep the two apart. Shu is disgusted by Anubis' display of affection towards a mortal which is forbidden without a human host and chides him, revealing to Sadie that Anubis is actually a child in god standards when she tells him off for it. Anubis tries telling Sadie about Walt's idea, but he is too late and Shu blows them apart. Then, Leonid comes with the aid of Shu, telling Sadie he needs her help.

When Carter calls for the gods to help fight Apophis, Shu is one of the gods that responds and helps fight Apophis until Carter and Sadie destroy him. When the battle is over, Shu leaves Earth with all of the other gods except Anubis. According to Anubis as he is now in a mortal body, Shu won't interfere with his relationship with Sadie, but he thinks Shu will continue to watch over him which he and Sadie joke about.

Personality

He is Anubis' chaperone and is disgusted by his relationship with Sadie and enforces the ban on him not seeing her again. However, this may simply be because Anubis has no mortal form which is the only way a god and a mortal can be together. Notably, Shu doesn't intervene when Anubis goes to take Walt as a host and is there for several minutes in the presence of Sadie against the rules. As Anubis was there to take a host and got permission from Walt to do so, he may have allowed it even though Anubis didn't immediately merge with Walt.

Shu also has a tendency to chastise Anubis and treat him like a child despite him being over 5,000 years old. When Sadie points this out to him, Shu says that that is a child by god standards, revealing the source of Anubis' young appearance and personality.

Despite his apparent disgust towards mortals, Shu transports Leonid, who has secretly learned to channel his powers, to Sadie. However, he seemed to think he did enough to help afterwards by doing that much.